A Pale Horse Named Death – And Hell Will Follow Me
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Genres: Doom, Grunge, Sludge
Label: SPV Records/Steamhammer Records
Former Type O Negative drummer Sal Abruscato takes a break from the throne to come to the front for his own project A Pale Horse Named Death, and when I found out I was full of anticipation. And it was worth it!
Sal crafted an album full of solid tunes that seem to take the doomy gothic metal approach of early Type O Negative and meld it to Alice in Chains style grunge/metal, giving the whole a sludge flavor. Fucking awesome stuff people, fucking awesome. With him is Seventh Void’s guitarist Matt Brown, and together they make a brilliant team, and their guests include Keith Caputo, Ulrich Krieger and Bobby Hambel.
The album opens with a running, heavy breathing horse, with echoing whinnies, then goes to drag you through the mud with “As Black as My Heart”, a slow song that really shows where Sal’s been musically. Full of bluesy riffs, nice solos, and a melancholy that’s soul crushing and life affirming, it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album.
My top song from the disc, however, is “Heroin Train”, the fourth track. It’s totally an Alice song without Layne’s voice, it’s just fucking sweet.
There’s something about “Devil in the Closet” that really reminds me of 80′s Ozzy Osbourne, when Zakk was first joining the band. I think it’s the guitar tone, mixed with the slow riff that’s drilling itself into my head and staying for good. I’d say this song is in the top three favorites from the album.
There’s not a single filler song on And Hell Will Follow Me, making it pretty much perfect for all those times when you need some grungy metal to take you through the day and you’d like something different from Alice in Chains. This is getting so many repeat listens from me, I might just piss Mrs. Blaspheme off with it soon.
10 out of 10.
